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Dr Ayman Shenouda, Wagga Wagga NSW, wins RACGP 2009 General Practitioner of the Year Award
3 October 2009
Dr Ayman Shenouda, general practitioner at Glenrock Country Practice, Wagga Wagga, NSW, has been awarded with The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) 2009 General Practitioner of the Year Award.
The RACGP General Practitioner of the Year Award recognises an individual general practitioner’s understanding of, and commitment to general practice; service to their community; and involvement in ongoing training and continuing professional development.
The RACGP sets and maintains the standards for quality clinical practice, education and training, and research in Australian general practice, and represents Australia's urban and rural general practitioners. The RACGP awards are an acknowledgment by the profession of excellence in general practice.
Presenting the award at the GP of the Year dinner held during GP’09 – The Conference for General Practice – in Perth, Dr Chris Mitchell, RACGP President, congratulated Dr Ayman Shenouda and thanked him for his outstanding service to the college, to general practice and to his community.
“Dr Shenouda is an outstanding and passionate general practitioner,” said Dr Mitchell. “In the short nine years that Dr Shenouda has lived in Wagga Wagga he has accomplished an extraordinary amount. Initially a surgical registrar in Tasmania after migrating to Australia from Egypt in 1992, Dr Shenouda was a newcomer to general practice when he and his wife (also a doctor) moved to New South Wales. He quickly realised that general practice was his passion – patient communication, family care, diversity and lots of challenges!”
“He created state-of-the art premises equipped with the latest IT and medical equipment opening the Glenrock Country Practice in 2005. In 2007 the practice won the NSW/ACT General Practice of the Year award,” Dr Mitchell said.
The Glenrock practice was also selected to be part of the National Primary Care Collaborative (NPCC), which focuses on improving patient access and care in the areas of diabetes and coronary heart disease management.
In addition to developing the Wagga Wagga practice, Dr Shenouda and his wife have been delivering medical services to the community of The Rock, about 20 minutes out of Wagga Wagga, initially working out of a rented room in the Country Women’s Association’s building. Following his election in 2006 to the The Rock and District Aged Care Facility committee, Dr Shenouda determined that the new facility should include a medical centre. The community raised $200,000 towards the aged care facility and Dr Shenouda facilitated funding from the Rural Medical Infrastructure Fund for a clinic. The community of The Rock is rightfully proud of the new facility, which boasts a medical centre, a pathology service and full time pharmacy.
Dr Shenouda’s passion for general practice extends to education. He is currently the Director of Medical Education for the Murrumbidgee Riverina Local Training Group working with CityCoastCountry Training. As well as providing medical education for thirty-three general practice registrars, he provides support to international medical graduates (IMGs). Dr Shenouda is one of two NSW IMGs to undertake the National Rural Faculty's, International Medical Graduates Mentoring training, following which he has trained a further 5 IMGs in his region. They in turn will each mentor a fellow migrant to Fellowship of the RACGP.
At a practice level Dr Shenouda supervises four IMGs on a daily basis, and has created a system through which IMGs have observer status in the practice for 3-6 months to help prepare for their AMC exams. He also supervises a registrar and mentors two or three medical students from the University of NSW rural campus.
“Through his community involvement, his focus on quality patient care, his commitment to training general practitioner registrars, his support for IMGs and enthusiastic advocacy of general practice as an exciting and rewarding career, Dr Shenouda is an inspiration to all,” Dr Mitchell concluded.
The winner of The RACGP’s General Practitioner of the Year Award will receive a $5,000 travel scholarship and a profile in Australian Family Physician, the medical journal of the RACGP. The prize money is to be used for travel to and/or attendance at a national or international convention in the medical and/or health areas of interest to the general practitioner.
The RACGP 2009 General Practitioner of the Year Award has been sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank.